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Juan Pujol Garcia

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Spy

The Resume

    (February 14, 1912-October 10, 1988)
    Born in Barcelona, Spain
    World War II double agent
    Spied for Britain against Nazi Germany
    Code named ‘Arabel’ by the Germans and ‘Garbo’ by the British
    Provided a mix of real and bogus information for Germany under the guidance of British intelligence
    To avoid reprisals from surviving Nazis after WWII, faked his death from malaria in Angola (1949)
    Settled in Venezuela and ran a bookstore and gift shop
    Identified and tracked down by historian Nigel West (1984)

Why he might be annoying:

    He dropped out of school at sixteen after an argument with one of his teachers.
    He was an unsuccessful poultry farmer before getting into espionage.
    He approached the British about spying for them three times, and was rejected each time.
    He had trouble figuring out the British pre-decimal pound/shilling/pence system for currency, so he never bothered to add up his expense reports for the Germans.
    When he faked his death, he abandoned his wife and children.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Living through the Spanish Civil War left him with a lifelong hatred of both Fascism and Communism.
    When he was unable to convince the British to take him on as a spy, he approached the Germans, with the intent of later turning double agent.
    He convinced the Germans he was filing reports from Britain when he was actually in Lisbon, cobbling together his reports from what he could glean from a tourist’s guide, reference books and British newspapers in the libraries, and movie newsreels.
    In fact his reports were so convincing that when the British intercepted and decoded them, MI5 (the counter-intelligence service) launched a full-scale spy hunt to try to find him.
    After the US entered World War II, he (or possibly his wife) approached the American Naval attaché in Lisbon, who recognized his talents and contacted the British, who brought him to England for real (April 24, 1942) and added him to the existing ‘Double Cross’ network of double agents.
    He created a fictitious network of 27 agents who reported to him.
    His network provided so much information that German intelligence decided to stop sending additional spies to Britain.
    When he realized his ‘agent’ in Liverpool would have to either report the departure of the invasion fleet for Operation Torch (the Allied landings in North Africa) or have a damn good explanation for missing it, he had the agent fall ill and die (with an obituary planted in the local paper for evidence) and even convinced the Germans to provide the agent’s widow with a pension.
    One of his MI6 handlers noted, ‘He has a facile and lurid style, great ingenuity and a passionate zeal for his task.’
    He played a leading role in Operation Fortitude, the deception campaign to convince the Germans that the Allied landings at Normandy were only a feint to draw military units away from the real invasion site at the Pas de Calais.
    The Nazis considered his information so valuable that he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, an award normally reserved for frontline soldiers and which required Hitler’s personal approval (July 29, 1944).
    He was also named a Member of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI, making him one of the few people to receive awards from both sides in World War II.
    He visited Normandy for the 40th anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1984), meeting many veterans, most of whom – upon being told who Pujol was and what he had done – effusively thanked him.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying